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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Cannon Review

In my opinion, scoring a kill via cannon fire is the most
satisfying type of take down. It is
usually up close and personal. "Lighting up" your opponent with cannon fire can be quite satisfying, especially since the Wingman upgrade REALLY causes the planes to light up when hit. The best
part is flying thru the fireball of what used to be your adversary.

A kill via cannon fire is a slower process where you slowly
whittle away your opponents health until he explodes. Fighting with your cannons requires much more
skill than simply firing an expensive missile at long range. So much so that a badge for "gunslinger"
is available for completing a campaign mission only with cannon fire - not an
easy task!

There are 4 variables in cannon performance to consider: Damage, Range, Heat Limit and XP Multiplier.

I value damage the most of these characteristics.
Range and cannon fire don't seem to go together very well. Cannon fire is much more effective in a close
range dogfight. If you are fighting with
an agility class plane, you probably want to gear up with better cannons than
if you are fighting with a weapons or defense class plane. The XP Multiplier allows you to gain more experience points - not very important in my opinion, especially if you reach the max level.

Heat limit increase could come in handy to avoid locking up your
cannons during campaigns perhaps if you want to spend the coin, but I wouldn't consider this an essential feature because rarely during a
versus match dogfight are you locked on to your target long enough where you will overheat.

Cannon Choices:

Standard issue 20mm Vulcan:
Unlike the standard issue missile, I have a healthy respect for the
standard issue Vulcan. I have often gone
with the Vulcan in versus matches and been successful. If you are able to outmaneuver your opponent,
you will be able to methodically take him down with the Vulcan nearly as
effectively as the more exotic and expensive cannons. As for campaigns and survivor matches, I
always use the Vulcan as it is more than adequate for these modes.

Real photo of a Vulcan posted below. I think that the Vulcan is the only "real" cannon on the list, but if anyone knows about any of the others, let me know!

Pict of a real life Vulcan 20mm cannon

Credit Purchased Cannons:

25mm Valkyrie: The
Valkyrie is available for 250 credits. At +20% Damage & +10% range, it is
my favorite purchase for credit cannons and overall favorite cannon that I use
the most for all versus matches. You get
extra punch that can make the difference in a close match

25mm Banshee: I never
get this cannon, mainly because as I mentioned, I don’t feel that extra range
is that valuable. I am curious if any of
you have a counter opinion and would be interested to hear from you.

Coin Purchased Cannons:

In general, I almost never get the coin purchased cannons. They just don’t seem worth the
money to me and I tend to go thru ammo very quickly. 1500 rounds don’t last very long!

30mm Apollo: If I
were to pay coins for cannons, I would probably get the Apollo the most. For 5 coins, you get a good increase in
damage and the heat limit.

30mm Osirus: Similar
to the Banshee, this cannon provides that extra range if you are interested.

40mm Zeus: The Zeus
gives high damage, range and heat limits, but 10 coins seems too expensive in
my opinion. Curious if any of you have
good feedback on these more expensive cannons.

40mm Hades: In line
with the Osirus and Banshee – this is the long range specialist. Again, 10 coins? Not so sure it is worth it.

33mm Voodoo: This
cannon is a curious choice. Only 15%
damage, but the XP multiplier is the mystery here – hopefully some of you can
clarify its value and I will then update this posting.

Thanks for reading. I
will refine this posting as I learn more about the nuances of cannon fire. Keep on firing!

28 comments:

You're buying XP multiplier for 2 coins in Voodoo if you compare it to Osiris. However if you play campaign mode every 8 hours in a day (make that 2 times a day) and you can save 5 coins for 1500 ammo within 5 days. Same thing for Apollo. Not a great money spender for me.... The XP Multiplier works like this: If the last 1% armor of your opponent is taken down by the Voodoo, you will get +10XP if you're still not on Lv 40, while those planes in survival mode will give you +2XP, +6XP, +8XP, +10XP and so on as the wave no. increases. However, IMO, the Voodoo loses its function as soon as you reaches LV 40 as there is no need for further XPs. Get the valkyrie if you're a cannon pro..... -Haruhi-

Starcaller - thanks! Gunslinger is one of the few badges that I hadn't gotten around to earning. Got it on the first try on mission 1 along with buzzing the tower badge (I think that I have all of them now except for some of the plane oriented ones). Good topic for a future posting!

I love this website. I started playing Metalstorm January 6, 2013.And now I am on level 30, I unlock the Arbiter and Ahhihilator.If you did't make this website, I would probably be at level 15.I think this is the best website ever!!!THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Mission 4 ... The winged serpent. Get a good wing man and decent missles. Stockpile APOLLO ammo and Lancer missles after completing mission. Go to mission review it really helps. I'm a loser so I do this every am on the exercise bike. So I don't buy missles or ammo.

Banshee is constantly critisised but IMO and any skilled agility fighter's oppinion ( those who use coins for weapons ... Gtfo ) this is a deacent weapon and i know many people who would favor it on the valkirie and the range only comes in handy in the ocean map since you / you opponent always respawns far away ( works on other maps too ) making the first few seconds very critical this is where range ( basically it is a smaller cannon spread pattern => if you have 100% cannon range then you are firing a sniper rifle ) commes in handy .As for me i preffer valkirie since i fly agility and tend not to attack my enemy while in first few seconds of the game but rather try to evade his bisnovats 8) -[AH] SHABA7-

I agree with this. People keep saying that the range feature is useless. But I just discovered (via trying them all) that higher ranged cannons are more accurate than lower range. At very close range (in circling) there's not much difference. At mid range (where you are locked but missiles just aren't fast enough to hit) higher accuracy with the ranged cannons. At long range (just use missiles) the only difference is the spread of the rounds, longer range equals smaller spread equals higher chance of hitting.

-PowerShiftI always use the sidewinders and the vulcan cannons. It is very difficult to get a kill, but skill overrides all other factors and I wind up winning ninety percent of the time, most of the people I beat being ones that use those stupid paid jets and missiles.

Skill USED to override all other factors, until that stupid update which added boosts and made the already-near-unavoidable coin missiles COMPLETELY unavoidable. Now a skilled pilot in a Reaper has no chance against a complete idiot in a Hawken if the Hawken has coin missiles.

Here's my theory and philosophy on Machine Gun/Cannons:- Guns are not very efficient at long range (horrible accuracy) and in real life, are not meant for long distance firing and hitting as well.- The best type of Machine Gun/Cannon is definitely one that deals a lot of damage. Distance, for me, is useless. You'd rather have a close range spray onto the target rather than a long distance spray, missing the enemy half the time. I fly an agility class plane , and close range, high damage cannons work best in vs. Mode-So thus, I believe the best choice is: Valkyrie-Its the cheapest non-stock cannon, and it deals more damage than even some of the coins cannons.

The 33mm Voodoo comes in handy during the sales of 2x XP boosters. Why? Because if you buy coins for a 2x XP booster(even 99 cents)and get the voodoo, you can stack the boosters with cannon kills and get 4x XP! This makes the voodoo much more efficient, and with the 2x booster, missile kills will still give something.